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The 8,600-acre, 127-turbine project east of Ellensburg is owned and operated by Bellevue-based Puget Sound Energy, which has plans to add the turbines to the current project area and to a newly purchased area of about 1,260 acres on the north side of the existing project.
It's estimated that adding 22 wind-powered turbines and towers is a more than $66 million project.
The new acreage includes about 960 acres purchased by PSE and lands leased from the state Department of Natural Resources and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Although the Tuesday approval adds to the project area in PSE's development agreement with the county, the final action to approve the expansion must come from the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, or EFSEC.
The unanimous OK from commissioners came despite comments from representatives of the Kittitas Audubon Society. Hal Lindstrom of Ellensburg, a local Audubon member called on commissioners to not take action on the agreement until a conservation easement is approved between PSE and the state wildlife department.
The easement would make all PSE project land off-limits for other types of development other than alternative power production. Also asking for the conservation easement is the nonprofit Friends of Wildlife & Wind Power and the Kittitas County Field and Stream Club, according to Lindstrom who was contacted after the meeting.
David Bowen, PSE's municipal liaison manager for Kittitas County and Central Washington, contacted later said a draft conservation easement is now under review by the state Fish and Wildlife Commission, and it's hoped to be approved soon.
Lindstrom also said there was a need for a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the project area expansion, and that it should be publicly reviewed and approved first before the county acts.
PSE officials said the draft supplemental EIS is expected to be released for public review next week, with deadlines for public comment.
PSE hopes to get full state approval of the expansion by the end of the year in order to start construction of new turbine sites in spring 2009.
Commissioner Mark McClain, after the meeting, said commissioners recognized the expansion area was already identified by the county as a wind power resource area compatible with wind farm development. He also said the conservation easement is formally an issue between PSE and the wildlife department.
McClain said the addition of 22 turbines doesn't exceed the total of 158 turbines that the project was initially approved for by EFSEC.
The Wild Horse Wind Power Project is about 17 miles east of Ellensburg, and the expansion area is described as on the high, open ridges in the vicinity of Whisky Dick Mountain about five miles north of Vantage Highway.
The wind farm began full operation with 127 turbines in December 2006.
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